March 2025 Newsletter
By Gilbert D. Martinez
On the eve of the new season, 15 chapter members and guests gathered in Round Rock on Sunday to reflect on the off season, to consider our favorite teams’ moves (or inaction) and to look ahead to a new round of prognostication.
While two annual contests have been announced (more details below!), we had one wrap up in February when the last of the big-name free agents, namely Alex Bregman, signed with the Boston Red Sox.
On Sunday, Cy Morong brought a seemingly simple but challenging quiz in which we had to name each MLB team’s home run leader in the 21st century. And he gave us three names from which to make our picks. Congratulations to Ryan Pollack for besting everyone with a score of 25. With 22 points, Monte Cely and Don Dingee tied for second place, with Monte securing the runner-up spot by virtue of the tiebreaker.
For their efforts, Cy presented Ryan and Monte with baseball books to treasure (pictured above, Ryan on the right).
Take a swing at Cy Morong’s Home Run Quiz by clicking here. The questions are on the first page; answers follow on the second page.
Inaugural Contractatron Contest Results
By Ryan Pollack
(Note: Ryan shared this via email on Feb. 14 with the Hornsby Chapter email group shortly after Bregman signed with the Red Sox last month.)
Welp — it’s done. The 2024-2025 Contractatron Contest is complete! All 10 free agents have signed their deals, or so I’m told. And it means baseball is just around the corner.
We will get to the final standings in a minute, but first: Alex Bregman signed a three-year, $120 million contract with the Boston Red Sox a couple of days ago. This is slightly below the reported median guess of $150 million. Let’s see where things shook out.
Mike Cohen had the best score for Bregman. It would’ve been impossible to have a better one, as Mike guessed the $120 million deal exactly. That’s a 0% miss, in case you need reminding. On the other side of the coin, Jerry Miller was off by the most. He predicted a cool $320 million, which tabulates out to a 166.7% miss. Oof! Bregman surely would’ve preferred Jerry’s guessed salary to Mike’s, but alas, it is not to be. However, since Bregman’s deal has a player opt-out after 2025, perhaps he can land that monster deal next offseason.
As you could guess by the median $150 million prediction, we weren’t that far off as a group from what Bregman actually got. As a group we missed by 25%, which is just about the middle of the pack:
For the entire contest, the median miss regardless of player was 33.5%. Not bad for our first year of guessing!
Final Standings
With a final score of 34.9, lowest average miss of the group — JIM BAKER is your 2024-2025 Contractatron winner!!!
Here are the full standings:
Jim’s best score was Teoscar Hernandez, for whom he was 0% off. He was also 1.7% off Bregman’s deal and 8.1% off Santander’s.
His worst was Pete Alonso, for whom he was 103.7% off — but remember this miss was actually good, as it was pretty far below the median miss.
Congratulations to Mike Cohen for a pretty close second-place finish as well.
That concludes our contest… thank you and I’m already looking forward to next year’s! Tell your friends!!
Prediction contests galore!
The Hornsby Chapter has not one but two predication contests for your prognostication pleasure!
Think you know how this season will unfold – or how you hope it unfolds? The choice is yours in Jim Baker’s Predictatron. Though the MLB season kicks off with the Japan Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs this week in Tokyo, the rest of the teams open next week. For winning their divisions last year, Brian Rogers, the reigning champ, and Eric Robinson will have divisions named in their honor. Early in the new season, participants will be randomly assigned to one division or the other.
Details about the contest are in the documents below. Deadline to join is 11:59 p.m. Friday, March 28. Use the links below for rules, instructions and the ballot.
2025 Hornsby Predictatron Rules and Instructions
2025 Hornsby Predictatron Ballot
But that’s not all! Ryan Pollack’s Awardatron Contest is also open for your best shot to name the season’s award-winners for MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year. Ballots are due by 9 a.m. (Central Time) Thursday, March 27. Click here for the instructions and to submit your ballot.
Next meeting and beyond
Our next chapter meeting will be at the home of Bailey, Nicole and Brian Hall at noon Sunday, April 13. More details and a call for RVSPs will go out in early April.
We’re planning an outing to see the Round Rock Express (Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers) host the Oklahoma City Comets (Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers), at 7:15 p.m. Saturday, May 17, which is also Star Wars Night! We’ll have more details soon.
In June, we’ll have a breakfast/brunch meeting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, June 14, at Rudy’s Bar-B-Cue on Capital of Texas Highway in Southwest Austin.
In July, we’re headed back to San Antonio to watch the Missions (Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres) host the Amarillo Sod Poodles (Double-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks).
Mark your calendar. Hope you can join us!
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